Coherent propagation and incoherent diffusion of elastic waves in a two dimensional continuum with a random distribution of edge dislocations

Abstract

We study the coherent propagation and incoherent diffusion of in-plane elastic waves in a two dimensional continuum populated by many, randomly placed and oriented, edge dislocations. Because of the Peierls–Nabarro force the dislocations can oscillate around an equilibrium position with frequency ω0 . The coupling between waves and dislocations is given by the Peach–Koehler force. This leads to a wave equation with an inhomogeneous term that involves a differential operator. In the coherent case, a Dyson equation for a mass operator is set up and solved to all orders in perturbation theory in independent scattering approximation (ISA). As a result, a complex index of refraction is obtained, from which an effective wave velocity and attenuation can be read off, for both longitudinal and transverse waves. In the incoherent case a Bethe–Salpeter equation is set up, and solved to leading order in perturbation theory in the limit of low frequency and wave number. A diffusion equation is obtained and the (frequency-dependent) diffusion coefficient is explicitly calculated. It reduces to the value obtained with energy transfer arguments at low frequency. An important intermediate step is the obtention of a Ward–Takahashi identity (WTI) for a wave equation that involves a differential operator, which is shown to be compatible with the ISA.